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60th anniversary of first flight of iconic SR-71 Blackbird
The cool photo in this post features a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Mach 3+ spy plane taking off with an F-104 Starfighter fighter, another Lockheed product.
This beautiful image was posted by Lockheed Martin on social media to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the first flight of the iconic SR-71.
The caption of the picture says;
‘A salute to the world’s fastest piloted aircraft, the SR-71 Blackbird!
‘60 years ago today, the revolutionary Skunk Works® aircraft soared into history during its first flight, redefining the limits of speed, altitude and innovation.
‘As we honor the SR-71’s legacy, we remain committed to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. The sky is not the limit—it’s just the beginning.’
The original Blackbird was designated the A-12 and made its first flight on Apr. 30, 1962. The single-seat A-12 soon evolved into the larger SR-71, which added a second seat for a Reconnaissance Systems Officer and carried more fuel than the A-12.
The Blackbird
The SR-71’s first flight was on Dec. 22, 1964.
According to Lockheed Martin website, the SR-71 was in a different category from anything that had come before. “Everything had to be invented. Everything,” Kelly Johnson, one of the preeminent aircraft designers of the twentieth century, and head of Lockheed’s advanced development group, the Skunk Works, recalled. He committed Skunk Works to succeed in its toughest assignment to date: to have the innovative, challenging, envelope-bursting aircraft flying in a mere twenty months.
The speed of the new aircraft was to exceed 2,000 mph. Other planes of the era could, in theory, approximate that speed but only in short, after-burner-driven bursts. This new plane needed to maintain a record-setting speed for hours at a time. At such velocity, friction with the atmosphere generates temperatures that would melt the conventional airframe.
Titanium, however, proved to be a particularly sensitive material from which to build an airplane. The brittle alloy shattered if mishandled, which meant great frustration on the Skunk Works assembly line, and new training classes for Lockheed’s machinists. Conventional cadmium-plated steel tools, it was soon learned, embrittled the titanium on contact; so new tools were designed and fabricated—out of titanium.
While friction would generate incredible heat at the leading edges of the aircraft, the ambient temperature outside the cockpit window would be -60 degrees Fahrenheit. Skunk Works’ Ben Rich spent untold hours tackling the problem of how heat could be dissipated across the entire airframe. Then he recalled a simple lesson from one of his university courses: Black paint both emits and absorbs heat. The aircraft was painted black, and soon earned its name: “Blackbird.”
The world’s fastest and highest-flying operational aircraft
Reducing the size of the Blackbird’s radar image meant an even further reduction in the likelihood that the plane would be perceived and shot down. Though the initial test results were good, rumors of Soviet radar advances led the U.S. government to ask for an even smaller radar profile.
Surfaces had to be redesigned to avoid reflecting radar signals, the engines moved to a subtler mid-wing position, and a radar-absorbing element was added to the paint. Then a full-scale model of the Blackbird was hoisted on a pylon for radar testing at a Skunk Works’ secret location in the Nevada desert. With tests carefully scheduled to avoid Soviet satellite observations, the results were impressive: The Blackbird model, more than 100 feet in length, would appear on Soviet radar as bigger than a bird but smaller than a man. The team had succeeded in reducing radar cross section by 90 percent.
The first SR-71 to enter service was delivered to the 4200th (later 9th) Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., in January 1966. The US Air Force retired its fleet of SR-71s on Jan. 26, 1990.
Throughout its nearly 24-year career, the SR-71 remained the world’s fastest and highest-flying operational aircraft. From 80,000 feet, it could survey 100,000 square miles of Earth’s surface per hour. On Jul. 28, 1976, an SR-71 set two world records for its class — an absolute speed record of 2,193.167 mph and an absolute altitude record of 85,068.997 feet.
Photo credit: Lockheed Martin
